More work ahead on 'massage parlors'

Published 4:56 pm, Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Good work by Bridgeport police, obviously with support from Mayor Bill Finch, to get tough with four massage parlor operators whose regard for the law is clearly zero.

The four were among 10 so-called massage parlors -- "These places are houses of prostitution," is how Police Chief Joseph Gaudett aptly describes them -- raided and shut down by city officials last month under the authority of tough new local and state regulations.

Among them is one that says if your profession is giving massages, you need to have the same state license that legitimate masseurs and masseuses have to get.

Last weekend, police went in and shut down Kay's Hong Kong, at 604 North Ave.; Chateau Health Spa, 2622 Fairfield Ave.; Silver at 2742 Fairfield Ave.; and Oriental Health Spa at 2336 Main St.

Police arrested seven women in the raids.

For Kay's and Chateau Health Spa, it was the second time they were found reopened since initially being shut down in December.

The most recent raids came just hours Connecticut Post reporters visited two establishments that were open for business and couldn't or wouldn't produce paperwork for reporters who asked to see it.

Gaudett said the illegal operations will remain a priority for his department.

Well they should be. They are a blight on the landscape and given, in these four cases at least, their utter contempt for the rest of the community, the city should come down on them as severely as the law allows.

Naturally, police and city health officials -- and neighbors -- should keep an eye on all 10 of the facilities closed in December.

As Gaudett has also noted, what goes on in these places is "not a victimless crime."

For one thing, many of the women "masseuses" are victims themselves, trafficked into a system of sex slavery.

Also, the neighborhoods suffer from the existence of these operations and the comings and goings of their seedy clientele.

Eradicating this unseemly aspect of life in Bridgeport would be a major step toward rehabilitating the city's image and restoring the confidence of neighborhoods in City Hall

State Rep. Auden Grogins, D-129, of the city's Black Rock section, has been in the forefront of the effort against the massage parlors.

She's pledged to work in Hartford to expand a nuisance abatement law that state prosecutors can use to close businesses that are repeat offenders with such illegal activity.

It's a proposal that should cause no controversy among her legislative colleagues.